Laying Down the Law (12 page)

Just as she reached for the doorknob, she felt a presence behind her. A moment later, a large hand closed around her mouth. Something hard nudged her ribs and she knew.

She smelled his cologne, felt the gust of his hot breath against her cheek. She went still as her blood chilled

“Have to stop meeting like this,” he whispered in her ear. His hand slid away from her mouth.

Torn between screaming and fighting, she quivered against him. Outside was chaos. Even if she had the courage to shout, they’d never hear her above the roar of the fire, the shrill whinnies of frightened horses and the shouts from the men as they scurried to put out the fire.

Tamping down her fear, she lifted her chin. “What did you do?”

“Set a fire in the barn,” he said, his tone weirdly gleeful. “It’ll give us a little time.”

She thought fast. Had all the hands left to take care of the fire? Even the ones watching the house? Stillness surrounded them. He’d done something. She just knew it.

“No one’s coming. Your guard’s gonna have a helluva headache when he comes to.”

A shiver racked her frame, but she stiffened her back. “I don’t know who you are,” she said, lying, because this time she recognized his voice. “You’ve already got me in the FBI’s crosshairs. You should have just let them find me. What more damage can you do?”

“I can make sure they stop looking. Point all eyes your way.”

“Bastard.”

A finger toyed with the hair beside her ear. “Too bad your sheriff didn’t show better judgment. If he’d locked you up, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“Leave him out of this.”

“Can’t. It’s too late now. He already harbored a
person of interest
. You disappear on his watch, they’re gonna think he let you escape. That maybe he knew all about the money and you cut him in so he’d look the other way.”

“He’ll be cleared. No one will believe he’s involved.”

“But it will take some time. Long enough for me to get far, far away.” He shifted behind her. “Open wide.” His hand appeared in front of her face, holding a wad of fabric

She didn’t want to open, but she didn’t really have a choice. He had a gun to her side, and she didn’t want anyone else hurt. She opened her mouth and waited while he stuffed the fabric inside. Panic welled because it was too large to push out with her tongue, and he wasn’t done. The gun fell away and tape covered her mouth, holding the wadding in place.

Then he dragged her toward the kitchen and the door leading to the driveway, away from all the commotion in front of the house. Opening the door, he pulled her out sideways, past the prone body of one of the hands.

She sobbed, the sound muffled. The urge to vomit rose up, but she tamped it down because she’d choke.

“Like I said, he’ll wake up. They’ll think you started the fire. That you hit him over the head making your escape.”

She dragged her feet, anything to slow him down, hoping like hell someone would see, but there was no one. The quiet enveloped them as he forced her quickly through a pasture toward the vehicle parked on the highway.

He didn’t pause at the fence. The barbed wire was cut. Another nudge on her ribs and he forced her into the passenger seat of the sedan and quickly restrained one hand with metal cuffs dangling from the oh-shit handle above the passenger-side window.

As he pulled away from the shoulder of the road, sirens sounded in the distance from the opposite direction. Fire trucks heading to the ranch.

Zuri watched as the Triple Horn Ranch faded in the distance.

She laid her head against the headrest and closed her eyes, praying for intervention, because she knew the farther down the road they got, the less her chances of ever being found were. She couldn’t imagine what Colt would go through when he discovered her gone. He loved her, had told her so, but would he hold onto that last nugget of uncertainty and believe she’d left willingly?

At least she’d had a chance to set things right. They’d had two days. Two perfect days. She could almost die happy. Almost. Except it would mean that David had won, and that thought made her mad as hell.

Colt jammed the truck into park in the middle of the road and yanked open his door. Two more county trucks pulled in, spitting gravel from beneath their tires, forming a barrier at the highway intersection. He’d used graveled ranch roads and a cutoff to get here quickly. He’d planned for just such an eventuality, coordinating with the sheriff from the next town over.

Wade stepped down from his truck. “If he makes it through this road block there’s another forming on down the road.”

The radio squawked. “Colt? Colt?”

Colt cussed under his breath. Gabe had never got the hang of the police radio.

“Got his taillights in front of me now. We’re about a quarter mile from you. Get ready.”

Colt clamped his hat on head, pulled out his rifle and opened his truck door to rest the barrel against the bottom of the window frame. In the distance, he saw the glint of metal in the early morning sunlight.

Wade clapped his shoulder. “We’ve got him boxed-in tight. No place he can go. We knew it was a diversion the second the barn went up.”

“Didn’t count on the fact he was already inside the damn house,” Colt ground out. “We were watchin’ the pastures, the roads.”

Gabe had seen him and Zuri slip across the pasture, but the bastard had a gun on her, and his brother had to hold back so Satterly wouldn’t spook and kill her on the spot. “Gabe’s been followin’ with lights off so he wouldn’t know he was bein’ trailed while I called in support. Should’ve arrested his ass the moment he nosed around the Roy’s garage.”

“Didn’t have cause,” Wade said from where he stood, rifle braced in the window on the other side of his truck.

Colt gave him a glance across the cab. “Wouldn’t have mattered. Zuri’d be safe. I should’ve been there. Should’ve stuck to her like glue.”

“You’re the law. It was your duty to alert the feds. When Satterly moved out of his hotel room, the deputies scrambled me. Had to call you, boss. It’s what you’ve been waitin’ for.”

Colt narrowed his gaze on the car approaching at a fast clip. The glint was Satterly’s sedan. He reached into the dash and flipped the switch to set the blue lights strobing. The other trucks followed suit.

The sedan slowed. Colt bent his head and stared through his rifle sight. It was Satterly behind the wheel all right. Beside him sat Zuri, her hand hanging from a set of cuffs. His gut tightened. She looked scared.

The car weaved then swerved, running off the road as the wheels turned and Satterly began to make a U-turn but discovered his way was blocked by another set of vehicles coming from the direction of the ranch.

Gabe slowed and flashed his headlights. Behind him were three more trucks, all from the ranch, ranch hands crammed in the cabs and tail beds, all armed.

“Hope they know not to let off a shot while she’s inside,” Colt growled.

“Your brother Tommy might think he’s so good with that rifle of his that he could take him out where he sits.”

“I’d have his ass if he tried.”

Satterly’s car halted, half in the ditch, then lurched back onto the road and headed slowly toward Colt and his deputies’ cars.

“Come on, buddy, do the smart thing.”

The car kept coming, the engine building. No sign from the driver he was going to stop.

Colt shook his head, pulled his rifle from the window and slammed his door closed. With his rifle held against his thigh, he strode down the center of the highway toward the car.

Was he crazy?
Zuri froze, watching Colt saunter like a gunfighter of old right down the center line. He was dressed for the role in his crisp blue shirt, a badge hanging from his pocket. His cream-colored cowboy hat sat square on his head. His expression was hard, his body held like an immovable mountain. Only she knew he was flesh and blood, vulnerable in the open.

“Sonofabitch,” David said, sweat beginning to drip down the side of his face. “Who does he think he is? Rambo?”

More like John Wayne
. Zuri made a noise behind her gag and rattled her cuffs.

“Shut the hell up.” David reached sideways and slapped her with the back of his hand.

Her eyes watered but she blinked the moisture away. Through the windshield, she realized Colt must have seen the blow, because he flipped up his rifle and jammed the butt against his shoulder. Still walking down the center line, he took aim.

“Don’t guess he cares a damn about you, sweetie.” David jerked his steering wheel to the left, drove down into the ditch and up the other side, the car tilting sideways at a dangerous angle until he rode the edge of the fence line. It looked like he intended get around the vehicles parked nose to tail blocking the road.

A shot fired, pinging off the tarmac.

Her scared glance shot toward Colt, but he was pointing in front of them. The shot was just a warning.

David punched the gas pedal, and the car shot forward, dragging the steel cuff on her wrist, which was already swelling. She moaned and braced her feet on the floor, trying to take some of the abuse off her wrist.

Another shot rang out. And above the noise the squeaking shocks made, she heard a hiss.

David cursed. “Shot my damn tire.”

He ran down the ditch and back into the middle of the road, but he fought the steering as he aimed the car straight at Colt.

Colt stood firm.

Zuri couldn’t believe the two of them. Both stubborn as hell. David had to know there wasn’t any escape, but he wasn’t giving up. Colt was an even bigger idiot, standing right in the car’s path. His expression was hard as stone. His eyes narrowed with deadly intent.

No way was she leaving her fate in either of their hands. Zuri brought up her legs and jabbed her feet toward David.

He took one hand off the steering wheel and reached for her. The car careened right into the opposite ditch and came to a rest against a fence post.

Her airbag exploded, plastic and chemicals slapping her in the face, dazing her.

David’s never deployed. His hands scrabbled for a hold on her legs, but as the bag deflated, she roused, wriggling and kicking, catching him with the edge of her heel against his jaw.

His head whipped back and hit the window glass.

Zuri kept kicking even though he lay still. She grunted with exertion, tears streaming down her face.

The door beside her jerked opened. Arms reached inside. The cuff was released, and she fell sideways out the door, but someone caught her. She kicked out again, bucking her body to free herself, still half-crazed.

Colt dragged her out the door and into his arms to hold her against his shaking body. “I’ve got you, baby. It’s okay, Zuri. It’s over.”

Her breaths came in jagged sobs. He ripped away the tape across her mouth and removed the wad of material. She dragged in a deep breath and screamed.

Colt pressed his cheek against hers and squeezed her tight. “Shhh…shhh, baby. Take a deep breath.”

She did, hiccupping, then jerked inside his embrace until he loosened his grip and she could turn toward him. She slammed her mouth against his and kissed him, awkwardly, crying at the same time.

Colt cupped her head, digging his fingers in her scalp and kissed her back.

When they came up for air, she leaned away, lifted her arm and slapped him as hard as she could across his face.

He didn’t move a muscle, although his expression shuttered.

She reached back again, but his hand shot out and caught her forearm in a firm grip. “Sure you want to do that?”

Everything she’d held inside erupted in a blistering scream. “You asshole! Think you’re Superman? That his car would bounce right off you? You scared the shit out of me!”

When she stopped, she realized that all the noise around them had too.

Her glance slid to the side to find Gabe fighting a smirk. One of the deputies, who looked awfully familiar, cleared his throat. Officers began moving around them again.

“Guess I shouldn’t have popped the sheriff in the mouth,” she grumbled, not ready to apologize.

“Got it all out?” he said, his voice even.

“No.” Her gaze dropped away from his steady glare, and she pouted her lips. “Never saw anything that damn dumb.”

His grunt made her look up again. Dark humor gleamed in his eyes and quirked up one corner of his mouth. “You all right? Did he hurt you?”

She shook her head. “No, but I was s-scared.”

“I know. I was too.” And then he gave her a wide smile. One she returned.

“I’m not gonna hit you again,” she said, shaking her arm.

But he didn’t ease his hold.

Not that she cared. Not with all the noise surrounding them, more sirens blaring, more feet running. She leaned toward him and pressed her face into the corner of his neck and breathed in his scent. “I didn’t want to go. He forced me.”

A kiss touched her forehead. “He was in the house.”

She nodded. “He surprised me. Pushed a gun into my ribs and gagged me. I didn’t fight because I didn’t want anyone else being hurt. The man at the back door?”